The 16-year-old sexual assault victim had said in a FIR that Asaram had threatened to kill her parents if she reported the assault. Now that the man has been arrested, her family has called off their hunger strike and demanded the strictest possible punishment for him.

According to the FIR
lodged by the girl, on August 15, Asaram had assaulted her for an hour-and-a-half inside a locked cottage as her unsuspecting mother sat outside, chanting prayers for the "exorcism ritual" her daughter was supposed to be undergoing.

"We were not aware that he was a beast masquerading as a spiritual guru," the girl's father said in Lucknow on Sunday. "Not only did we donate 7 acres of land, we also contributed money for the ashram. There was immense pressure on us to withdraw the complaint. From threats to money, Asaram's supporters tried every trick in the book."

One should not have blind faith on the self-styled godman, he added. "Asaram took my daughter to his private quarters to perform rituals to ward off evil spirits and then he assaulted her."

On August 15, before holding the "rituals", Asaram had talked to her parents, asking them to sit near the gate of his cottage, do some meditation and leave, the girl said in the FIR. He had even advised the father to take her to Ahmedabad for further "treatment".

Later, entering the room, Asaram switched off the lights and asked her to go and check on her parents. "When I said my father had left, but my mother was sitting outside, he locked the door and started molesting me," the girl said in the FIR.

Asaram also said after eight more "religious performances", he would arrange for her return to Chhindwara, but the girl refused to go and told the story to her parents. Then her father decided to meet him and brought the girl to Delhi. But when the family was denied access to Asaram, the girl filed an FIR in Delhi on August 20.